Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), a member of the House Rules Committee and Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, started his week by talking to Dagan McDowell on Mornings with Maria about how the Phase 4 COVID-19 response legislation has become more about political advantage than helping Americans. 

McDowell: Why couldn’t the Democrats and Republicans come together on this much needed stimulus?

Burgess: Remember, this has been tied up for months by Nancy Pelosi. You want to look at where the problem is? That’s where the problem is and very clearly the current speaker subscribes to the old [saying]: never let a good crisis go to waste. She saw an opportunity in May, “Hey, we can get every single thing we’ve ever wanted as liberal Democrats. Let’s put it all in one bill and put it out there and dare them not to vote on it. That’s what they did. The shame of it is: we’ve worked together on all of the other response bills up until that time, but this one was different. They overreached and now they won’t come back to the table. I think the President and the jobs numbers are going to combine to force people back to the table.